More Super Health centers will benefit Pinoys

More disadvantaged Filipinos will be able to access basic healthcare services through the Super Health Centers that will be strategically located in rural communities.

Senator Christopher “Bong” Go made this remark during the groundbreaking for another Super Health Center in Sara, Iloilo Tuesday as he continued his advocacy to improve the country’s health sector and establish more health facilities that would significantly benefit Filipinos.

The senator was instrumental in pushing for the budget for the Super Health Center in Sara and hundreds more such centers nationwide. He likewise committed his continued support for the establishment of more Super Health Centers in the country as he had earlier successfully pushed for additional funds for the centers in the 2023 health budget.

Super Health Centers offer health services including database management, out-patient, birthing, isolation, isolation, diagnostic (laboratory: X-ray, ultrasound), pharmacy and ambulatory surgical unit services. Other available services are eye, ear, nose, and throat treatment, oncology centers, physical therapy and rehabilitation centers, and telemedicine, where remote diagnosis and treatment of patients will be done.

Apart from Sara, Super Health Centers will be established in Iloilo City and the towns of Anilao, which Go visited last November 11 to conduct a site inspection, Carles, Maasin, Pavia, Igbaras and San Joaquin — the last one’s groundbreaking was personally witnessed by Go and Senator Robinhood Padilla just months ago.

Malasakit centers

Still in line with his goal to make medical care more accessible to those in need, Go reminded Ilonggos there were four Malasakit Centers in their province located at Western Visayas Medical Center and West Visayas State University Medical Center, both in Iloilo City; Don Jose D. Monfort Medical Center Extension Hospital in Barotac Nuevo; and Western Visayas Sanitarium in Sta. Barbara, where they could conveniently seek medical assistance from the government.

The Malasakit Centers program is a brainchild of Go. It was initiated in 2018 and institutionalized under Republic Act 11463, which the senator principally authored and sponsored.

The center is a one-stop shop that houses all health agencies concerned, including the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Health, Philippine Health Insurance Corporation, and Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, under one roof to ensure medical assistance programs are within reach of poor and indigent Filipinos.

To date, there are 153 Malasakit Centers nationwide which have successfully assisted millions of Filipinos.